BELCHERTOWN, MASS. 



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HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



PAYSON W. LYMAN 



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150th ANNIVERSARY 



OF TIIK 



Incorporation of the Town 



OF 



BELCHERTOWN 

July 2, 3 and 4 
A Sketch of the Celebration 



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THE HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



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Rev. Payson W. Lyman 



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PRKSS ok LKWIS II. Bl.ACKMKR 

1912 



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GOVERNOR BELCHER 



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Historical Sketch of the 150th Anniversary, 
July 2, 3 and 4, 19 U 



At the annual town meeting March 6, 1911, the town vo- 
ted to observe the 150th Anniversary of its incorporation. 

This occurred on June 30, 1911, but it was decided since 
that day so closely preceded the Fourth of July, to combine the 
Anniversary celebration with that of Independence Day. The 
town appropriated the sum of $ 500.00 which was considerably 
increased by generous contributions by the several local organ- 
izations and by private individuals. 

Invitations were sent to sons and daughters of Belcher- 
town in 26 states and several foreign countries and a large 
number were present to participate in the celebration. 

The following general committee was appointed by the town : 

Wilbur T. Hale. Merrick A. Morse, 
Daniel D. Hazen, James A. Peeso, 
R. E. Faircliild, Louis W. Dillon, 
Harry A. Hopkins, Herbert F. Curtis. 

The Belchertown Historical Society appointed a committee 
on pageant which consisted of, 

George H. B. Green, Mrs. Gertrude Thomson, 
Fred D. Walker. 

The Reception committee at the Library, Monday evening, 
July 3, consisted of the members of the General committee, the 
Selectmen, the Trustees of Clapp Memorial Library, and their 
wives. 

Marshal of Parade, — Dwight F. Shumway, 
Town Crikr, — Fred B. Purdy, 



Program 

SUNDAY, JULY 2. 
10.45 A. M. Special services in the churches. 
7.30 P. M. Congregational church. 

Historical Address, Rev. Payson W. Lyman, 
of Fall River. 

MONDAY, JULY 3. 
2.30 P. M. On the Common. 

Address, Hon. Robert Luce. 
8.00 P. M. Reception at Clapp Memorial Library. 

TUESDAY, JULY 4. 
10.00 A. M. Historical Pageant, On the Common. 

Eari^y Period. 

1. Arrival of Governor Belcher, 1735. 
His Greeting by the Settlers. 

2. Scenes of Indian Life. 

Capture of Captain John Smith, and rescue by 

Pocohontas. 
Indian Dances. 

Nineteenth Century Days. 

1. Coming of Lafayette to Belchertown, 1825. 
Welcome by the townspeople. 

2. Reception to Lafayette. 
11.00 A. M. Historical Parade. 

3.00 P. M. Ball Game. 
8.00 P. M. Grand Display of Fireworks. 
Music by Turner's Falls Military Band all day and evening. 



SUNDAY EVENING, JULY 2. 

The Celebration of the 150th Anniversary began with the 
Historical Address by Rev. Payson W. Lyman, in the Congre- 
gational Church, at 7.30 P. M. The united choirs of the 
churches sang, led by Alvan R. Lewis. 

MONDAY, JULY 3. 

2.30 P. M. On the Common. 

M. A. Morse introduced the speaker of the afternoon, Hon. 
Robert Luce of Somerville, who gave an appropriate address. 
A poem " Belchertown " , written by Miss Abbie Snow, was 
read by Mrs. Wilbur T. Hale. There was singing by the pupils 
of the public schools led by Mrs. Lucy A. Gatchell. 

In the evening at 8 o'clock, a largely attended and success- 
ful reception to past and present citizens of Belchertown was 
given at Clapp Memorial Library which was tastily decorated 
for the occasion. The grounds about the building were lighted 
with Chinese lanterns and from tables on the lawn ice cream 
was served after the exercises. 

Rev. Wilbur T. Hale, chairman of the General Committee, 
presided. Master Willie Gilbert gave a recitation " My Coun- 
try's Flag. " The choir of the Methodist Church under the 
direction of Marcena M. Aldensang several selections, and Miss 
Blanche Upham of Palmer and Miss Carolyn Fiske of Boston 
sang solos. The Grange Orchestra played. An Anniversary 
poem written by Mrs. Susan Owen Coleman was read by Mrs. 
Thomas Allen of Montague. Poems written by Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Smith Newton of Los Angeles, California, and W. O. Terry 
of East Brookfield, Ma.ss., were also read. Interesting letters 
were received from Mrs. S. T. D. Robinson, widow of the great 
governor of Kan.sas, Mrs. Daniel L. Hazen of Los Angeles, 
and others. 

TUESDAY, JULY 4. 
The Historical Pageant at 10 o'clock was the crowning e- 
vent of the celebration and will long be remembered by the 



4 



people of Belchertown. 

The success of the exercises and the enjoyment manifested 
by every one were the more notable in view of the weather con- 
ditions. The first week in July was the hottest in the memory 
of the oldest inhabitant. In fact a hot wave extending all o- 
verthe eastern part of the United States reached Belchertown. 
The temperature recorded July 4 at the Weather Bureau in 
Boston was the highest since its institution 40 years ago. It 
was 104 degrees in the shade in Belchertown on that day. 

Notwithstanding the heat however, those participating in 
the Pageant acquitted themselves creditably. 

Governor Belcher, impersonated by Daniel D. Hazen, was 
welcomed by the townspeople clad in the costume of Colonial 
Days. Kdward R. Peeso made the address of welcome, which 
was well delivered and appropriately phrased, calling the exec- 
utive's attention to the glories nature had given the precinct of 
Cold Spring ' ' , and craving for the people the honor of nam- 
ing it Belcher's town. Mr. Hazen made a fitting reply, 
part of his speech having been taken from an address actu- 
ally made by Governor Belcher. Among those who participa- 
ted in the reception to the governor which followed, was Frank 
Forward of South Hadley Falls, who wore the garb of an old 
time minister. This was especiall}^ appropriate as his great 
grandfather was Rev. Justus Forward, the second settled min- 
ister in Belchertown. This scene was presented by the mem- 
bers of Union Grange. 

Fifty Indians led by Powhattan ( Principal John V. Jew- 
ett of the High School ) gave a very interesting exhibition. 

General Lafayette ( John W. Jackson ) attended by his 
son and secretary, arrived in an old fashioned stage coach 
which was driven by Lewis Shumway of Ware, whose grand- 
father was one of the stage drivers when Cold Spring was 
merely a watering place for thirsty travellers. On the coach 
was the trumpeter to herald the approach of so important a per- 
sonage. He was welcomed by the townspeople clad in the cos- 
tume of the early 19th century. Edgar E. Sargent, as spokes- 



man for the town welcomed Lafayette in an address of a his- 
torical nature and Mr. Jackson made an appropriate reply. At 
the reception which followed, a Minuet by Belchertown ladies, 
was a very pleasing feature. Those who participated were 
graceful and courtly in their curtsies and no feature of the Pag- 
eant excited more favorable comment. 

These scenes were presented by Mt. Vernon Chapter, Or- 
der of the Eastern Star and Vernon Lodge of Masons. 

In the Historical Parade at 11 o'clock, the different scenes 
of the Pageant were represented on floats. The Farmers' and 
Mechanics' Club had two excellent floats, showing old and 
new methods of agriculture. There were floats represent- 
ing Cold Spring and Log Town ; also one depicting an Ind- 
ian scene presented by citizens of Enfield, which together with 
Belchertown was a part of the " Equivalent Lands. " There 
were also other pleasing features in the parade including the 
" Vehicle Light Bill. " 

In the evening there was a beautiful display of fireworks 
on the grounds of Fred D. Walker. The more comfortable 
weather of the evening permitted a large attendance. At the 
same time there was a concert by the Band. The display 
closed with a set piece, "the 150th Anniversary of Belcher- 
town ", and the celebration was a matter of history. 

WILBUR T. HALE. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 



BY 



Reverend Payson W, Lyman 



A STORY OF BEGINNINGS 

It is impossible, within the compass of an evening's ad- 
dress on so great a theme, to say all one might wish to say. 
The embarassment is not so much to find what to say as to de- 
termine what to leave unsaid. 

This town was settled during a lull in that great struggle 
for continental supremacy which the English and French had 
waged and which had made several generations of New Eng- 
landers familiar with the arts of warfare, especially with the anx- 
ieties and horrors of the savage border foray and with the for- 
est strategy which such an enmity made necessary. 

The fourth Indian war continued from 1722 to 1726 and 
was known as " Father Ralle's War " from the name of its 
leading Jesuit instigator. It was brought on by the pushing of 
English settlements up the deep bays and rivers of Maine. The 
brunt of it Massachusetts bore. Behind the Indians were the 
French of Canada encouraged by the French King. This war 
brought the Indians down the Connecticut Valley and people 
were slain, wounded or taken captive at Northfield, Deerfield, 
Hatfield, Northampton and Westfield. At this time there were 
only twelve towns in the valley portion of our state including 
Brookfield, Brimfield and Suf field, the latter then under Mass- 



achiisetts jurisdiction as one of the towns of Old Hampshire. 

After this war the colonists enjoyed an interval of 18 years 
peace until the outbreak of the fifth Indian war known as the 
French and Indian war in 1744. 

During this period of peace many new towns were planted , 
including Belchertown. 

The territory of Belchertown was a part of the so-called ' 'e- 
quivalent lands. " The line between Massachusetts and Conn- 
ecticut, especially the Connecticut Valley portion, was long in 
dispute. Settlements in Suf field, Enfield, Somers and Wood- 
stock, now in Connecticut, were then under the jurisdiction of 
Massachusetts and were protected by our state during the In- 
dian wars. 

Adhering to a wrong south line which was run in 1642 and 
crossed the Connecticut River several miles too far south, Mass- 
achusetts granted to these and other towns and to individuals, 
105,793 acres of land. After a long controversy it was agreed 
in 1713 that Massachusetts might retain jurisdiction of these 
towns, if she would give to Connecticut the same number of a- 
cres of her public lands as an " equivalent ' ' . 

In 1715 two men from Connecticut and one from Massachu- 
setts, acting as acommi.ssion, laid out for Connecticut 51,850 
acres east of Hadley, now Belchertown and Pelham, 10,000 in 
Ware, and 43,943 on the river above Brattleboro, over which 
Massachusetts then held jurisdiction. In April 1716, the agents 
of Connecticut sold this territory in 16 shares at auction for 683 
pounds, or a little more than a penny and a half an acre. In 
his history of Hadley, Sylvester Judd records that there was 
much buying and selling of the "equivalent lands" at Cold 
Spring. He says that in 1722 twelve men, seven of them 
Northampton farmers, bought 8400 acres at Cold Spring at 3 
shillings per acre, in bills, or at about 25 cents in real value. 

Our historian, Hon. Mark Doolittle, saj^s that in 1727 
Connecticut sold its right to the territory now Belchertown to 
seven persons residing in or near Boston, in 6 equal divisions, 
the fifth to Jonathan Belcher. During October and November 



8 



1727, Col. Timothy Dwight of Northampton surveyed and plot- 
ted the territory. His lines included 27,390 acres. 

Up to this time there had been no permanent settlements 
here. Men from Hadley, Hatfield and Northampton had been 
accustomed to drive herds of cattle for summer pasturage in 
this region. Men came hither to box the pine trees for tur- 
pentine. Candlewood, i. e. pitch pine knots from fallen trees, 
abounded here and people from the river towns came to collect 
it for lighting their dwellings at night. 

The men who owned the land, in order to promote its set- 
tlement offered to give homesteads to men who would settle 
thereon. 

At that time there was no settlement between Brookfield 
and Hadley, 

This settlement got its original name. Cold Spring, from 
the spring on what you know as the Bartlett farm in the Cold 
Spring school district, a spring from whose bounteous outflow 
of cold water, travelers between the Bay and the river settle- 
ments often refreshed themselves and their horses. 

Sylvester Judd records that Aaron Lyman was a licensed 
innholder at Cold Spring in 1728, the year after the sale of the 
lands plotted by Col. Dwight. The Aaron Lyman homestead 
included Cold Spring and there he entertained travelers. The 
offer of homesteads was accepted by Aaron Lyman, Benjamin 
Stebbins and Samuel Bascom of Northampton, and John 
Bard well and Jonathan Graves of Hatfield, who according to 
Doolittle, removed hither in July 1731. By 1737 there were 
20 families here and in that year it is supposed they organized 
a church. On a petition of Capt. Caleb Lyman, on behalf of 
the inhabitants of the tract of land commonly called Cold Spring 
Plantation, praying that they may be enabled to assess a tax of 
three pence per acre per annum, on all the lands there, for the 
building of a meeting house and settling and supporting an 
orthordox minister, it was ordered by the General Court, 
Jan. 6, 1738, that the prayer of the petitioner be granted and 
that John Smith, a principal inhabitant be allowed andempow- 



ered to assemble and convene the inhabitants there at some 
suitable place to choose assessors to levy the tax and to choose a 
committee to take care of building a meeting house, which 
house shall be set on such place as shall be agreed upon by a 
major vote of the proprietors at a meeting to be appointed for 
that purpose, " the vote of each proprietor to be reckoned ac- 
cording to his respective interest ' * . The petition thus favora- 
bly acted upon stated that they had twenty families and expect- 
ed more soon. Under the authority thus granted, a meeting 
house was raised and covered in, though not finished till 1746. 
In the autumn of this year, 1738, when the General Court as- 
sembled, it received a petition from Ebenezer Bridgman and 
others, inhabitants of the plantation called Cold Spring, pray- 
ing that they may be vested with the powers and pri\'ileges of 
a township for the better support of their minister and the 
more regular management of their other affairs. Thus the re- 
ligious motive was foremost in their desire for incorporation. 

On Jan. 25, 1739, it was ordered that this prayer be "so 
far granted as that Mr. Aaron Lyman be, and is hereby, fully 
authorized to notif}' and warn the inhabitants and residents of 
said tract of land qualified by law to vote in town affairs, to 
convene as soon as may be in some public place to choose town 
officers and to agree upon some proper method for the calling 
and settling a minister and making provision for his support ". 

Acting under this authority, the people met and voted a 
call to Rev. Edward Billing, a native of that part of Hadley 
now known as Saunderton, which call Mr. Billing accepted in 
a letter dated Feb. 22, 1739. The first deacons of the church 
were John Smith and Aaron Lyman, and they held their offices 
respectively 40 and 43 years. They, with Samuel Bascom, Ste- 
phen Crawfoot ( probably Crawford ) and Jonathan Graves were 
chosen a committee to act with Mr. Billing in calling a council 
for his ordination, which event is supposed to have to have tak- 
en place in the April succeeding the call — i. e. 1739. 

In a petition to the General Court dated Novcmlier 1740, 
the petitioners say that they are greatly in debt for building a 



10 



meeting house, outside covered and glazed, and a minister set- 
tled. They are still but 20 families. They are in debt for land 
for their minister's settlement and to him also for his salary. 
They say in support of their petition for a land tax on non-res- 
ident proprietors, — " we have sustained preaching for five or 
six years and have advanced the estates of the proprietors more 
than our own by settling Cold Spring ' ' . 

The pastorate of Edward Billing whose wife was a sister of 
Rev. David Parsons, the first minister of Amherst, continued 
till April, 1752, i. e. 13 years. During this time the settle- 
ment had grown to fifty or more families. 

The cause of the rupture of this pastoral relationship was 
a disagreement between pastor and people as to the qualifica- 
tions for church membership. The church believed in what 
was then called the half-way covenant — i. e. that confessedly un- 
regenerate persons, of reputable lives might have their children 
baptized and have voting power in church affairs. Mr. Billing 
opposed this view. He was a friend of the great theologian, 
Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, whom Erskine called " the 
greatest of the sons of men. ' ' It was this same difference that 
caused the disruption of the Edwards pastorate in Northamp- 
ton, June 22. 1750. 

In the Edwards crisis in Northampton on this issue, Mr. 
Billing and his church played an important part. Each party 
in Northampton chose half the churches. The church in Cold 
Spring was one of those chosen by Mr. Edwards. The church 
refused to accept the invitation. But Mr. Billing went to 
Northampton on his own responsibility and was accepted by 
the council itself as a member. But, as he had no delegate, 
the Edwards party in the council was left in a minorit}' of one. 
Consequently the council, by a majority of one, voted the dis- 
mission of Mr. Edwards. Had the Cold Spring Church sent a 
delegate, in sympathy with the Edwardean view of its pastor, 
the council would have been tied, and Mr. Edwards would not 
have been dismissed. Deacon Aaron Lyman's brother, Benja- 
min, ray ancestor, was one of some 20, or less than one in ten. 



11 



in the Northampton church, to vote against the dismission of 
Mr. Edwards. 

The consequence of this transaction was trouble between 
Mr. Billing and his church. Several councils were held in the 
hope to compose these differences ; but finally the pastorate, 
which had been expected to be for life, was terminated by a 
council held in April, 1752. 

Mr. Billing was shortly after called to become the first pas- 
tor of the first church in Greenfield. There he died within a- 
bout 5 years, probably in 1757. 

This was an unhappy end of the first pastorate of this 
church and people ,but it was the result of a contention on a vi- 
tal point in church order, and the churches of New England la- 
ter came to hold, and act upon, the Edwardean view, which 
Mr. Billing upheld. 

The great Commoner, — " The Morning Star of the Revolu 
tion ' ' , Major Joseph Hawley of Northampton, a bitter and lead- 
ing opponent of Mr. Edwards, afterwards most humbly con- 
fessed his grave error in that counse. In his confession he 
speaks of attending a council at Cold Spring involving this is- 
sue where he had hoped in vain for an opportunity to confess 
his error. But the heated controversy among the people there 
did not allow it. 

After the dismission of Mr. Billing, the people remained 
pastorless three years and ten months, meanwhile, however, 
maintaining preaching services and the church ordinances. At 
length, at a precinct meeting held June 9, 1756, the church u- 
nanimously voted a call to J \iatitte Forward, a native of Suf field, 
Conn. , and a Yale graduate, \yno had studied theology with Rev. 
Timothy Woodbridge of Hatfield, to the pastorate. 

Mr. Forward's letter of acceptance was dated June 29, " at 
my lodgings in Cold Spring ' ' and is addressed ' ' to the church 
of Christ in the township of Cold vSpring and to the inhabitants 
of said town ' ' . 

You will notice that thus in 1756, five years before the act 
of incori)oratinti, which we celebrate, Mr. Forward the j)astor- 



cJi^sU'^^s 



12 



elect, speaks of the " township " of Cold Spring. 

Mr. Forward's ordination took place Feb. 25, 1756 in the 
26th year of his age. He thus became the pastor of 60 families 
and of some 300 persons. He was settled for life, and continued 
the only pastor of all the people for 56 years. The last three 
years of his life he had a colleague, — Rev. Experience Porter. 
Mr. Forward died March 8, 1814, in the 59tli year of his min- 
istry to this people. This was the year that saw the close of 
the second war with Great Britian . During this time he had fol- 
lowed to their graves more than 900 of his people. He had re- 
ceived to the church 380 members, 284 of them on confession 
of faith. Thus he was pastor during more than one third of 
the life of this church up to this date. 

We have noted that in accepting his call in 1756, Mr. For- 
ward spoke of ' ' the township of Cold Spring ' ' . But it was not 
yet a town in the full sense of the term. It was a "precinct ' ' so- 
called, with practically the right of local self-government, both 
in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Why full township rights 
were not given, is told us by Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland — one 
of the great gifts of this community to the world, — in his history 
of Western Massachusetts. He says : "Before 1753 the gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts received instructions from the home- 
government which, in a strong light, exhibited the growing jeal- 
ousy of the crown of the popular element in the government of 
this colony. The increase in the number of the towns, increas- 
ing in the same ratio the representation in the legislature, was 
seen to present formidable encroachment upon the authority of 
the parent power. To put a stop to this, the governor was in- 
structed to consent to no act for establishing a new town, with 
the right of representation, for many years. As a substitute, 
districts were incorporated with the full privilege of towns, ex- 
cept representation. ' It will be seen that even in the act of in- 
corporation, which we celebrate, this right was denied. 

You must note that ministers were called, their salaries de- 
termined and paid by the town or district, in its corporate capac- 
ity. The motive to the organization of the town was often ex- 



13 



pressly stated to be that so tliej- might be able the better to pro- 
vide for themselves the institutions of religion. This was true 
in this community. The records of the doings of the inhabi- 
tants of Cold Spring in their precinct meetings during 20 years 
next after 1741 till the full incorporation, show that almo.st 70 
meetings were held under warrants containing over 700 dis- 
tinct articles and that more than half of these articles, exclusive 
of those relating to the organization of the meetings, related to 
their ecclesiastical councils. As Mr. Doolittle, the town's his- 
torian, puts it : "A prompt, persevering and e\-er-wakeful vig- 
ilance to sustain the great truths of the Bible in doctrines and 
duty a?id to give them efficiency in life was, in their view, the 
only condition on which blessings could be expected." And 
that ought to be the view of their children from generation to 
generation. 

The time finally came when the people of Cold Spring be- 
came urgent for full incorporation. At a precinct meeting held 
Dec. 29, 1760, a conunittee was appointed to present a petition 
to the General Court for an act of incorporation as a town. For 
brevity's sake, omitting the address, the petition was as fol- 
lows : — ' ' Elijah Smith and Jonathan Bardwell, both of the place 
called Cold Spring in the County of Hampshire, a committee 
appointed by the inhabitants of the .same at their meeting held 
there for this purpose, as ]>y a copy of their xote then passed 
will appear, humbly show : 

" That the said place has for many years been inhabited and 
settled by a considerable body of the good subjects of our sover- 
eign Lord and King and that the Freeholders and other inhab- 
itants there now amount to about the number of 45 families; 
that the said plantation, not being incorporated into a town or 
district now do and ever have labored under many of the diffi- 
culties and inconveniences respecting their i)ublic affairs, such 
as the repairing of highways, building l)ridges, and that neces- 
sarily attend the state of things they are in, whereby they are 
rendered as a body less useful to the community of which they 
are a part than otherwi.se the\- might l)e and would choose to be. 



u 



"To remove such inconveniences, and obtain the privileg"e 
to which the said plantation apprehend they have, in common 
with others His Majesty's liege subjects in this province con- 
veniently situated therefor, a good right. Your memorialists 
on this behalf, humbl}^ supplicate your excellency and honors 
to incorporate the proprietors and inhabitants of said place in- 
to a town, by some proper means, and with certain bounds and 
vest the same with all those powers, privileges and immunities 
which by law, towns in this province have and ought to have. 
And as in duty bound will ever pray. Cold Spring, March 28, 
1761, signed by Elijah Smith and Johnathan Bardwell, Commit- 
tee. " 

The petition now in the archives of the Commonwealth 
bears the following endorsements. — 

" In the House of Representatives April 3, 1761 — Read and 
ordered that Mr. Belcher and Mr. Foster with such as the Hon- 
orable Board shall give, be a committee to consider and report 
what may be proper for the committee to do upon the petition . 

Sent up for concurrence. James Otis, Speaker. 

In council, April 3, 1761. Read and concurred. John 
Hill, Esq., is joined in the affair. A. Oliver, Secretary. " 

Such the petition. Now the act of incorporation which is 
chapter 7 of the acts of 1761. 

An Act for incorporating the plantation called Cold 
Spring into a town by the name of Belcher's Town. 

" Whereas the inhabitants of the plantation of Cold Spring, 
lying in the County of Hampshire, labor under many diffi- 
culties and inconveniences, b}^ means of their not being a town. 

" Therefore, Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and 
House of Representatives that the said plantation, commonly 
called and known by the name of Cold Spring, bounding eas- 
terly on Swift river, south on Swift river partly, and partly on 
Palmer, westerly partly on Springfield and partly on Hadley 
and north on Pelham, be and hereby is, erected into a town by 
the name of Belcher's Town, and that the said town be, and 
hereby is, invested with all the powers, privileges and immuni- 



15 



ties that any of the towns of this province do, or may, enjoy, 
that of choosing: and sending a representative to the General 
Court only excepted. 

And be it further enacted that Eleazer Porter, Esq. be, and 
hereby is, empowered to issue his warrant to some principal in- 
habitant in the said plantation requiring him, in His Majesty's 
name, to warn and notify the said inhabitants qualified to vote 
in town affairs, that they meet together at such time and place 
in said plantation as, by said warrant, may be appointed, to 
choose such officers as may be necessary, to manage the affairs 
of the said town. And the inhabitants, being so met, shall be, 
and hereby are, empowered to choose said officers accordingly." 

The parchment on which the act was engrossed bears the 
following endorsements : — 

June 25, 1761—" This bill, having been read three several 
times in the house of Representatives, passed to be enacted. " 

James Otis, Speaker. 

June 26, 1761 — •" This bill, having been read three several 
times in Council, passed to be enacted. " 

June 30, 1761 — By the Governor. " I consent to the en- 
acting this bill. " Francis Bernard. 

Andrew Oliver, the secretary, was brother in law of Hutch- 
inson, a later royalist governor. 

Bernard, the governor, had just come from the governorship 
of New Jersey in which he had succeeded Belcher. Of his ad- 
ministration. Barber, in his History of New England, says; "His 
Measures were at first popular, but he soon rendered himself 
extremely odious by his zeal to sustain the British ministry in 
their encroachments on the rights of the people. He appointed 
Mr. Hutchinson instead of Mr. Otis to the office of chief jus- 
tice, in opposition to the wishes of the people, — favored the in- 
troduction of troops into Boston for the purpose of constraining 
obedience to the arbitrary acts of parliament. ' ' The first meet- 
ing under the authority thus conferred was held September 30. 
1761. In the absence of definite census record, Mr. Doolittle 
estimates that the population at the time of the incorporation 



16 



was about 560. 

As the act of incorporation shows, the new name of this 
place was Belcher's Town, — written in the act as two words. 
At the time of the incorporation. Governor Belcher had been 
dead three years. But he was Governor of Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire when the first settlement here was effected 
and he was one of the owners of the territory. He was born in 
Cambridge, graduated at Harvard, became a Boston merchant, 
was chosen a member of the council and in 1729 went as agent 
of Massachusetts Bay colony to England. While he was there, 
Governor Burnett died, and Belcher was appointed Governor. 
Of him and of this appointment, George lyOwell Austin, in his 
History of Massachusetts, says : — " Mr. Jonathan Belcher, a 
young man of pleasing address, was still in England when the 
tidings of Burnett's death arrived. Fired with ambition, and 
supported by Shute and other of his friends, he applied for the 
Governorship and obtained it. One reason why he was thus 
chosen was that no one else, possessing the ability, could be 
found in the kingdom to accept the appointment and further 
more it was thought that he, being popular among his own 
countrymen, would be the better able to arrange the unsettled 
state of affairs. 

On reaching Boston from England, Governor Belcher com- 
municated his instructions to the Assembly. " In case of the 
refusal of the House to comply with these instructions," he 
said, " His Majesty will find himself under a necessity of lay- 
ing the undutiful behavior of the provinces before the legisla- 
ture of Great Britain, not only in this single instance, but in 
many others of the same nature and tendency, whereby it man- 
ifestly appears that this Assembly for some years last past, has 
attempted by unwarrantable practices to weaken , if not to cast 
off, the obedience they owe to the Crown, and the dependence 
which all colonies ought to have on their Mother country. " 

Thus the revolution seemed to have been brewing for some 
years before 1731. As in duty bound. Belcher, as the King's 
appointee, sought to stem the tide. But the last part of his ad- 



17 

ministration of 11 years was marked by an endless series of pe- 
cuniary difficulties. 

" By his steady opposition to the current schemes of the 
provinces " says Austin, " Governor Belcher gradually became 
unpopular. Even his friends in England were prejudiced a- 
gainst him and united with his enemies at home in seeking his 
removal. At length his administration came to an end in 1741. 
His integrity which had been impeached, was vindicated in 
England, and six years later he received an appointment as Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey. He was one of the most elegant gentle- 
men of his time in manners and appearance, a native of New 
England, one of Harvard College's special friends, and a great 
favorite with all with whom he associated. Taken all in all, 
he was as amiable, generous and noble hearted a man as any of 
whom the provinces could boast. " 

He was governor of New Jersey from 1747 to 1757. Thus 
his public career covered most of the time which I have thus 
far described, from the settlement of " Belcher's Town " up to 
its incorporation with his name. 

But neither Belcher nor any other royal governor proved 
able to stem the tide of colonial resistance to royal oppression. 

In their petition for incorporation, as we have seen, the set- 
tlers here profess themselves "the Good Subjects of our Lord 
and King ' ' ; yet the fires of resistance to royal oppression were 
burning here as brightly as anywhere. 

It is a distress to me that the time does not permit me to 
rehearse what my studies would enable me to tell you of the 
part Belcher's Town took in throwing off the yoke of Great 
Britain. But some of you have in print what I have written 
on this subject. It would be a great pleasure to dwell more at 
length than the time allows on their preparation for the call to 
arms, and on their prompt and energetic response when the call 
at length came. I should like to tell of the County Conven- 
tion held in Northampton, September 22, 23, 1774, "to con- 
sult upon measures to be taken in this time of general distress 
in the provinces occasioned by the late attacks of the British 



18 



ministry upon the said province. " Our members of that mo- 
mentous convention were Col. Caleb Clark, Joseph Smith and 
Nathaniel D wight. I wish I could tell of their assembly at 
their meeting house November 7, 1774, to organize a military 
company of which they elected Caleb Clark Captain, Joseph 
Graves, first lyieut., John Cowles second Lieut., Elijah Dwight 
Ensign, and Oliver Bridgman Clerk, and of their order to lay 
in a stock of ammunition to be placed in the hands of Elijah 
Dwight, of Captain Zachariah Eddy's long drive to Providence 
for a supply of powder for the town's use, of their extreme 
promptness in honoring the tax requisition of the Provincial 
Congress, of Captain Samuel Howe's and Captain Nathaniel 
Dwight's membership of that body in successive sessions. 

I should like to tell of their meeting in the church, presi- 
ded over by Deacon Aaron Eyman, when the men voted unarn- 
inously, that if the Continental Congress should issue a Decla- 
ration of Independence, they were ready to defend such declara- 
tion with their lives, their fortune and their sacred honor. I 
should like to speak of the leading men, as indicated by mem- 
bership in the successive committees of Correspondence and 
and Safety, — Such men as Col. Caleb Clark, Capts. Nathaniel 
Dwight, Samuel Howe, Josiah Lyman, John Cowles, Jonathan 
Bard well and Zachariah Eddy. Lieuts, Nathan Kingsley, Jo- 
seph Graves and James Walker, Deacons Daniel and Joseph 
Smith, Israel Cowles, Oliver Bridgman, Ebenezer Warner and 
Moses Hannum. 

Thus on the alert, the men of Belcher's Town were ready 
for the call to arms when the conflict was precipitated by the 
collision at Concord Bridge and Lexington Green. On the 
next day two companies of Minute Men marched from the 
town. One of thirty-five men under Capt. Jonathan Eardwcll 
and Lieuts. Aaron Phelps and Silvanus Howe, the other under 
Capt. John Cowles and Lieuts. Asahel Smith and Eleazer War- 
ner. Both of these captains with most of their command were 
in the service about Boston till August 1. Of the experiences 
of this period Bancroft thus speaks : ' ' The existence of the ar- 



19 

my was an indication of the benevolence of the New England 
people, and its sustenance during May, June and July cannot 
be accounted for by ordinary rules. There was nothing regu- 
larly established, and yet many thousands of men were supplied. 
Touched by an all-pervading influence each householder es- 
teemed himself a sort of commissary. There were no public 
magazines, no large dealers in provisions, but the wants of the 
army rung in the ears of the farmers, and from every cellar, 
barnyard and field throughout Worcester, Hampshire and even 
Berkshire, such articles of food as could be spared were devo- 
ted to the camp, and everybody's wagons were used to transport 
them. But for this, the forces must have dispersed. How it 
was done, cannot exactly be told ; popular enthusiasm keeps 
little record of its sacrifices ; only it was done, and the troops 
of Massachusetts and New Hampshire were fed without so 
much as a barrel of flour from the Continental Congress. ' ' / 
No doubt the farmers of Belcher's Town did their share in this 
service, as they did in supplying soldiers all through the long 
and blood}' struggle for national independence. Often they 
were in advance of the demands upon them in furnishing sol- 
diers for the Continental Armies. 

In the winter following Lexington and Bunker Hill, Capt. 
Elijah Dwight with sixty-one men did garrison duty in the in- 
vestment of Boston with the regiment of Col. Woodbridge. 

One of Arnold's Captains in his terrible expedition across 
the wilds of Maine during this winter, in aid of Montgomery 
about Quebec, was Elihu Lyman, son of Deacon Aaron Lyman 
of Belchertown, who afterwards attained the rank of Major and, 
I think,, was with Geiieral Shephard when he repelled the as- 



sault of Shay^ rebels on the Arsenal at Springfield. When, 
after the defeat of Arnold and the fall of Montgomery before 
Quebec, it became necessary to reinforce our army in Canada, 
Colonel Elisha Porter of Hadley was commissioned to raise a 
Hampshire regiment for that service. One of his captains was 
Josiah Lyman, who, with his Lieutenant James Walker, led 
the Belchertown company in what was about the most severe 



20 



expedition of the war. The regiment started March 22, 1776, 
went to Ticonderoga, thence up Lake Champlain, and' down 
the St. Lawrence to Quebec. This service was so extraordina- 
rily hard that the town credited these men with two months for 
each month they actually served. Captain Lyman was Major 
of Colonel Nathan Tyler's regiment, which served in Rhode 
Island from May 1, 1779 through that year. Colonel Porter re- 
tained his command in the Northern Army until its operations 
were crowned by the capture of Burgoyne in Oct. 1777. When 
any special emergency arose, troops for a brief service were re- 
cruited throughout the state. We find, e. g. , that Lieutenents 
Aaron Phelps and James Walker were at the head of a company 
in Colonel Porter's regiment which contained 27 Belchertown 
men. In the next month. Captain Jonathan Bardwell with 
Lieutenants James Walker and Henry Dwight led 51 men from 
the town for a month's service with Porter's regiment just be- 
fore the capture of Burgoyne. Among the privates of this 
company, were such men as Josiah Lyman, John Cowles, Dan- 
iel Smith and Moses Howe, who had each led soldiers in pre- 
vious campaigns. Captain Elijah Dwight and Lieutenent Da- 
vid Barton led a company of Belchertown men in Colonel Por- 
ter's regiment for six weeks' service in New London in 1779. 
Repeated levies for the Continental Army were responded to. 
Every year brought to the burdened people fresh calls for 
troops, and every year saw the departure of troops for months 
or for years, as the case might be. 

Besides those already named, mention should be made of 
Major Nathan Parsons, brother of the wife of Edward Billing, 
Belchertown 's first pastor, and brother of Rev. David Parsons 
the first minister of Amherst. The wife of Major Parsons was 
a grand-daughter of Captain Nathaniel Dwight. Major Par- 
sons was in the war from its beginning to its end. He was at 
Bunker Hill, at Burgoyne's surrender, and with Washington 
at Morristown. 

Dr. Estes Howe, .son of Colonel Samuel Howe and son-in- 
law of Captain Nathaniel Dwight, was a drummer boy in his 



21 

father's company at Lake George in 1759, was surgeon in Col. 
David Brewer's regiment from April to December 1775, and 
surgeon in Colonel Rufus Putnam's regiment from January 1, 
1777 to May 1, 1779, including the campaign which culmina- 
ted in the battle of Saratoga and the capture of Burgoyne. He 
was on the staff of the successful commander, General Horatio 
Gates. He was Belchertown's first physician, and practised 
here 50 years. For two years before his death, he was disabled 
by paralysis. In June 1825 the then venerable General Lafay- 
ette was passing through Belchertown on the way from Albany 
to Boston. On being told that there lay sick in a house near 
by, an old officer of the Army of Saratoga, he ordered his car- 
riage to stop, and went in to greet the disabled veteran. Another 
Belchertown officer was Captain Joel Green, who led a company 
in Col. Ezra Wood's regiment at Peekskill and White Plains 
in 1778. He was adjutant of Colonel Jonathan Warner's reg- 
iment of Lexington Minute Men. In the town's rolls he is 
credited with more service than almost any other man. 

The following named Revolutionary soldiers died in the 
service according to a private record kept by Rev. Justus For- 
ward. Stephen Ayers, Asa Davis and Jonathan Olds died in 
Roxbury, and Samuel Belknap in Cambridge in 1775. Reuben 
Heath died in the Army in December 1775. David Bridges, 
like many of his fellow campaigners about Quebec in the spring 
of 1776, contracted small pox and died from it. His son, Da- 
vid Bridges, Jr., died at Crown Point later in the retreat. Jon- 
athan Hulet, Simeon Phelps and Reuben Skinner died the same 
season in the Northern Army, near Ticonderoga. Ebenezer 
Gould Parsons, a boy of 13, waiter to his brother. Major Na- 
than Parsons, then adjutant of Colonel Marshall's regiment, 
died at Albany in 1777. Benjamin Squire and Jeremiah Pike, 
a soldier at White Plains, also died that year. Oliver Wil- 
liams, who was a soldier at Bennington, and Jonathan Olds 
died in 1780. In October 1781 Salmon Kentfield Jr. died of 
small pox at the head of Elk River. In 1782 James Sawin 
died in the service. The only Belchertown Revolutionary sol- 



22 



dier killed in battle so far as now known was William Harring- 
ton who was killed in September 1781 in the final battle of the 
war at Yorktown, which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis. 

" Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age and apply thy- 
self to that which thy fathers searched out. Shall not they 
teach thee and tell thee? " History, it has been well said, is 
philosophy teaching by example. Nothing is gained by ig- 
noring the lessons of the past, by disregarding the teachings 
of experience, by scouting the fathers as men whose wisdom we 
have outgrown, and the lessons of whose life and thought we 
may well enough neglect. In their time there was just as 
great heroism, just as great energy displayed, just as great wis- 
dom manifested, as is seen in our day. The fathers of this na- 
tion, the founders of this Republic, the Pilgrim fathers, the ear- 
ly statesmen, the pastors of the colonial churches, the college 
builders, the Indian fighters, they who subdued the wilderness 
were as virile, as heroic, as consecrated as any of those of later 
time. They endured for conscience sake. They came hither 
to build a better nation than that into which they were born, 
to establish a freer church, to plant institutions which should 
furnish the mould for the life of a great and free people. 

They had, it is true, no steam engines, no locomotives, no 
electric motors, no illuminating gas, no electric lights, no tele- 
graphs, or telephones, no wireless transmission of intelligence, 
no aeroplanes, no such tremendous steamships as now plough 
the seas, no such frightfully effective enginery of war as the 
inventors and scholars of modern times have developed. But 
their lives were as great and glorious as are any which we now 
see. They were thinkers and debaters. They saw perhaps as 
near to the throne of God as we do. At all events, they were 
as loyal to what they did see as we are. 

History is one of the studies which should by no means be 
neglected. He writes himself down as a man of small mind 
who scouts it as of little account. All great achievements of 
the present and of future time must be laid on the foundation 
of the studies, the discoveries and the experiences of the past. 



23 

" Inquire I pray thee, of the former age, and apply thyself to 
that which thy fathers searched out. Shall not they teach thee 
and tell thee ? " 




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